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In the 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while the pure entertainment and theatricality of classical era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned.

Changing cultural mores and the abandonment of the Hays Code in 1968 also contributed to changing tastes in film audiences.

The 1973 film of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar was met with some criticism by religious groups, but was well received.

By the mid-1970s filmmakers avoided the genre in favor of using music by popular rock or pop bands as background music, partly in hope of selling a soundtrack album to fans.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was originally released in 1975 and was a critical failure until it started midnight screenings in the 1980s where it achieved cult status.

1976 saw the release of the low-budget comic musical, The First Nudie Musical, released by Paramount.

The 1978 film version of Grease was a smash hit ; its songs were original compositions done in a 1950s pop style.

However, the sequel Grease 2 bombed at the box-office.

Films about performers which incorporated gritty drama and musical numbers interwoven as a diegetic part of the storyline were produced, such as All That Jazz, Saturday Night Fever, and New York, New York.

Some musicals released in the New Hollywood period experimented with the form, such as Bugsy Malone and Lisztomania.

The film musicals that were still being made were financially and critically less successful than in their heyday.

They include The Wiz, At Long Last Love, Funny Lady ( Barbra Streisand's sequel to Funny Girl ), A Little Night Music and Hair amongst others.

The critical wrath against At Long Last Love in particular was so strong that it was never released on home video.